France's Macron to host global climate meet

Updated 2017-12-11 10:32:14China Daily

About fifty global leaders are expected to attend the One Planet Summit on Tuesday in Paris hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron to decide what steps to take after the U.S. government left the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

China's Vice-Premier Ma Kai, as the special envoy of President Xi Jinping, will attend the gathering on finance in support of climate action, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The one-day event, on Dec 12, will take place on the anniversary of 197 countries adopting the Paris Agreement in 2015.

Macron reportedly will announce 12 projects at the event, which will be jointly organized by the French government, the United Nations and the World Bank.

The politicians, business leaders and academics will discuss scaling-up finance for climate action, greening finance for sustainable business, accelerating local and regional climate action and strengthening policies for ecological and inclusive transition.

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced his administration's intention to leave the Paris Agreement, Macron decided to host this event to "make the planet great again" at the G20 summit held in Germany in July.

After signing Paris Agreement, China has consistently turned the international commitments into domestic action, which have been shown in its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

During his recent meetings with European officials, China's new Ambassador to the EU Zhang Ming also pledged that China will be working with the EU to strength multilateral global governance and boost cooperation on climate change.

The experts have hoped that this event can see some tangible actions from the developed economies in technology transfer and financial help to poorer countries, which have been discussed for a decade.

"It is not bad though, and in times when leaders, like Donald Trump, are taking steps in the wrong direction, it is good to show willingness to move forward," said Dennis Pamlin, senior adviser to the Research Institutes of Sweden.

Pamlin said China's experiences in building some low-carbon cities can be shared at the summit, and it is also a good opportunity to discuss the Belt and Road Initiative and build zero-carbon or low-carbon global infrastructure in support of a zero-carbon global economy.

"Hopefully some stakeholders will take the opportunity in Paris to highlight that concrete action is what we really need," said Pamlin.